The government may be spending crores on AIDS awareness and prevention, but its officials are taking things easy. This is especially so in matters like random quality checking of condoms in the market, as is stipulated under the UN guidelines.
The state drugs control department which regulates the sale of condoms has no condom-testing equipment at the government laboratory here to ensure their safety and effectiveness. What is had is not functional for a long time.
As a result, 40 odd varieties of condoms including free, subsidised and the premium ones available in the market, are not being subjected to random sampling or checking. “Our drug inspectors are not lifting the samples from market or institutions as there is no facility for testing,’’ said state drugs controller Hari Prasad.
WHO has laid down guidelines for tests to ensure the quality of condoms. Besides the water leak test, which reveals any holes in a condom, the product has to undergo air burst test or tensile test which shows whether a condom is likely to break during use and whether it has any other defect.
Barring the quality control drills of the company at the production stage, there is no mechanism to check the condoms’ effi-cacy.
Experts say the situation is alarming. Condoms as a contraceptive has a pregnancy prevention success rate of over 98 per cent, sexually transmitted diseases prevention rate of 70 per cent and HIV prevention rate of up to 85 per cent.
“We are in a helpless situation. There is no replacement of the machine. The company which installed the machine has never cared to rectify the snag for several years,’’ said Shiju Purushothaman, the government chief analyst.